PROGRAM NOTE

My teacher John Corigliano taught me to visualize my music in detail before I even settled on any notes, so that I’d know why I was writing them first. The titles of the individual movements of my Sonata for Violin and Piano reflect the way they each represented themselves to me in my mind’s eye. These color contrasts of each told me much about the notes I wanted. The three different color patterns of the overall work, if they were an outfit, would clash pretty terribly. But sometimes clashing patterns can be so bad they’re good. You have to wear it like you mean it. Instead of fast-slow-fast, I’ve tried to make ferocious, glacial, calamitous.